


The Boyhood of the Year

by beanarie



Category: Captain America (2011), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Spring, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beanarie/pseuds/beanarie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt <i>Steve and the romantic partner of your choice (Bucky/Tony/Darcy/whomever) enjoy the first really nice spring day in New York. You know the one, where you can really smell spring for the first time and the sky is so blue you could cry.</i> from my friend and sharing circle-mate <a href="http://mrsdrjackson.livejournal.com/">mrsdrjackson</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boyhood of the Year

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from _Lancelot and Guinevere_ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Steve wakes up to a smack on the side of the head. "Geez," he mumbles. "What's it?" Then he coughs. It sounds like it always does, which is to say, it sounds awful. 

Bucky, sitting on the edge of the bed, looks remorseful. Steve would be ticked off at him, but Bucky can't help being fifteen and healthy and saddled with a best friend who almost always sleeps too long. 

"You looked better," Bucky says. "Until that."

"I'm fine," Steve insists, pulling himself up so he's sitting too, and therefore less likely to be talked over. "Let's get going. Where did your mom leave my books?"

Bucky rolls his head to the side. 

"I said I'm fine," Steve says, knowing that move. 

"Buddy, it's noon already. You slept half the school day away."

"No, it isn't," Steve says without hesitating. Bucky might not be able to read the shadows on his windowsill, but the same can't be said of everyone.

"Okay, you got me. It's not noon. You know what it _is_ , though?"

As Steve pulls on that pair of jeans Bucky outgrew over a year ago, he shrugs, smiling a little. "I don't know. Eight fifteen?"

"Baseball weather." He gestures at the half open window, rising to his bare feet and throwing his arms out, taking up all the space Steve probably never will. "Just take a gander at that blue sky, Stevie-boy. Prospect Park is calling our _names_."

"Buck," Steve says.

Bucky turns around, but instead of facing Steve, he glances at the floor, shrugging one shoulder. "If you're up for it."

"Of course I'm up for it. That's not in question here." Steve smothers another cough. He feels better. He does. "You know we've only got a few weeks until Easter break, and the weather's gonna be just as beautiful then. I don't see why we have to skip school just because it's-"

"Only the first rainless, snowless, hailless day we've had since the World Series. Come on, Rogers." 

Steve laces up his shoes with a smirk. "I don't remember any hail."

"Come _onnn_ ," Bucky begs, a slight bounce to the balls of his feet. 

The thought occurs to him, that Bucky could spend his day with anyone in the world. He doesn't have to waste so much of his life waiting for Steve. Yet, he does. He shortens his stride when they're walking together. He stops by the orphanage with the schoolwork Steve didn't get because he was home sick. He offers half his bed when the radiator's out or the nuns are feeling especially fire and brimstone. And now he wants to go play some ball on the first decent day they've seen all year.

"Fine," Steve says, with a put-upon sigh. "Fine, fine. Go get your bat. Shoes would probably be a good idea, too." 

His asthma will only get worse after an hour or two outside, and Sister Bridget will turn him black and blue when he finally goes back to the orphanage. But Bucky's answering grin seems to dim the cheerful mid-morning sun. Steve can't help not caring about the rest of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Kate ended her prompt with, "Bonus points if you work in a cheese-tastic line about how Steve's eyes match the sky." Do I get a nod for comparing Bucky's grin to the sun? :D


End file.
